I will have to keep telling myself this as I train for the 2014 Marine Corps Marathon (26.2 miles)! Yes.. I decided to take on the challenge of training and running for the MCM in October. I have decided to raise money through a charity called "Homes for Our Troops." It's an organization that builds specially adapted homes for our severely injured veterans. I chose this particular charity because I have been working with a number of homeless (not injured, but homeless) veterans since beginning at OFO. It deeply saddens me to see anyone homeless, but to see a veteran.. one of our own, young or old, struggling is even more disheartening. We have conversations about the duty that they have fulfilled for our country and how as a country we fail them. Therefore, I've wanted to bring awareness around this and raise money for a charity closely related. I cannot even fathom the struggles of injured, physically injured, veterans. If you would like to read more about the charity and to support my efforts here is a link to do so: http://hfotmcm14.kintera.org/ashleywarren
I thank all of you that have supported and encouraged me thus far. I know that finances are a struggle for many... oh I know this all too well, but please consider any amount. A little goes a long way. I am more than half way to my goal already!
So, with that being said. I officially started training today. My goal was to complete my task at hand within an hour and I told the girls to call 911 if 2 hours had passed. My goal was to run a "country block." For those of you that know where I live you're probably thinking... okay, "where?" Yeah, I made a left out of my driveway... with my bonehead of a dog that's never ran with a human before. Over an hour later we returned. :-p
It.. Was... Awful...
First of all.. I haven't ran in months, but that's okay.. I was prepared for that! Secondly, Ruby is a Border Collie/Aussie mix. A herding dog. And that's all she did to me the entire 5 miles was herd me. I take that back. Around mile 4 she got tired... and then she was absolutely perfect. But the first four miles were a workout that I did not anticipate. I knew that she was going to be moronic. But I did not expect her to jump at my feet each time a car came. I really think that she was overly excited and just couldn't wait to see what was next! Going down hill was awful. Trying to hold her back without wanting to kill her was a workout in itself. Of course going uphill she wanted to stay behind me at that point... so almost dragging her or at least having a taut rope the entire time. See:
She's a bright dog... and needs some work. JW is to run with her from here on out until she gets a hang of it!
So, I did just over 5 miles in just over an hour... This is what a country block looks like:
That orange part in the upper right? That's a hill. A muddy, messy hill. These pictures do not do justice:
So, any time you wanna run a "country block," let me know. The pace will be significantly faster and there will not be a dog in tow!!!
There's a lot of training to be done. So, what better motivation than signing up for a few races. My tenative race schedule is as follows:
April - Cider Mill 5k -- haven't registered
May - Base Race 10k -- haven't registered
June - Spartan Sprint
June - Race the Lake 13.8 (http://www.clarksportscenter.com/events/race-the-lake/) -- haven't reigstered
July - Boilermaker 15k
Aug - Camp Chingachgook Challenge 1/2 Marathon (http://www.areep.com/events/acc/) -- haven't registered
Sept - Ragnar Adirondacks -- haven't registered
Oct - MARINE CORPS MARATHON
Please feel to join me on any of them! You can even sign up for your own charity bib for the MCM if you wanna take part in that! Really, you can!!
I thought that this would be the year for me to do so because I will be turning 30 in July. My BFF Kimmy will be running the Boilermaker with JW and I. I cannot wait! :) I'm so excited for that one. But I figured, I'm turning 30, I have Saturday mornings free... I can do long runs then and run for about a half hour on my lunch breaks... so, it should be ooookay-ish. We will see... and I'll be blogging about it along the way! I really need to get registering for these races though. It's so costly.. and catching up on 8 months of ... hell?... is going to take awhile. :) If only I could have sponsors... or if races could be free. But, I truly and thoroughly understand the costs of them. People ask me, "You pay to run in races..." Yeah, I do. I never take the opportunity to explain why... but many races are raising money for charities, organizations and to bring awareness to a cause. I guess it's the social worker within me... I dunno!
So, if you ever wanna hit pavement on a Saturday morning, let me know. I am following a schedule until June and then a different one after that to train for the full marathon. I'm willing to share that with you if you want to train for the Race the Lake 13.8 with me!! :) It's local to my home. It's a long Cooperstown lake and will be a challenge in itself, but so entirely beautiful. I am thankful that I heard about it... it's the first annual race and to be able to say "I've raced that one since the first year" will be a great thing to brag about years to come! So, what do you think?
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